Lexington, KY - Women Leading Kentucky founder Janet Holloway is stepping down as the organization's Executive Director after more than a decade of striving to support and empower Kentucky women professionals.
As a search for her successor gets underway, Holloway talked with Business Lexington’s Tom Martin about her 13-year role as a major supporter of and mentor to would be and working businesswomen and how she plans to continue with the organization in an advisory role.
Tom Martin: What inspired you in 1999 to launch Women Leading Kentucky?
Janet Holloway: I was at UK running the Kentucky Small Business Development Center and not only enjoyed working with women but saw a critical need that women business owners at the time had. There was a lack of self-esteem and difficulty in promoting not only who t hey were but what their business or services were about. There were not many resources available to women at the time. So, as I talked to women business owners over the nine years I was at UK I realized that I really wanted to work with women and that’s when I left UK and started Women Leading Kentucky.
TM: Did you in fact pull together a menu of resources and contacts and make them available to members?
JH: Yes. We do that through our conferences and our roundtables. We have a statewide awards ceremony, the Martha Layne Collins Leadership Award and we’ve started offering scholarships to young women who are in college. All of our workshops or presentations at our conferences and our roundtables address issues that women need to know about.
TM: When you had this idea and made the decision to go forward with it, was there anyone in particular who joined the effort and helped make it happen?
JH: Governor Collins. I went to Gov. Collins and said I’m going to resign from UK to do this and I’d like you to be involved. We’d like to create an award in your name. And she said. ‘I’ll help however I can.’”
TM: What kind of response to you get from women in business or those thinking about going into business?
JH: The very first year I did a conference and we had nearly 400 women attend. It was Spindletop and people were crammed into corners - there wasn’t room for everybody. They had come from all over the state. The need was that great.
TM: How is going today?
JH: It’s quite amazing. The conference doesn’t attract 400. I think people’s time is much tighter. We did draw 340-something this year at our annual conference and every one of our Roundtables sells out a week or two in advance. That’s 140-150 people every Roundtable and we now have eight of them.
TM: What challenges remain that in your view should be top priorities of your successor?
JH: It really is about resources: both money and people. We’re a 1.5 staff over here. And now we’re doing eight to ten programs each year, one of them a statewide conference. So, we’re pushed to the limit in terms of what we can do. The business community here has been very generous and supportive of what we’ve done. They’ve recognized the need. They’ve recognized their own female staff and have gotten staffs involved in the networking and identifying other potential clients. We get no federal, state or local funding. We’re supported by the business community.
TM: Are there any particular issues that you believe this organization ought to be addressing as it goes forward:
JH: Yes. There are two markets that we want to work on: involving and engaging younger women - high school students as well as entry-level professionals, and older women in the sense of ‘what’s next?’ I’m going to pursue some of those on a trial basis after January first: to see what is next for women in their 50’s, 60’s, 70’s? Do they want to start a business? Do they need financial literacy training? Do they need a whole variety of resources?
TM: Now that you mention it, what’s next for Janet Holloway?
JH: You, we’ve had a fantastic year. And I don’t know who it was who said it, but when you’re leaving, go out on top. I feel like that’s part of this. I’ve been here for almost 13-years now and I said to my board recently that I want to empty my heart a little bit and see what else comes in.
I’m on two other boards, the Carnegie Center and the Lyric. I’ll be working actively with both of them. I will be promoting and publishing my book. I just signed with a publishing house. That’s going to take some time. And I want to explore those other issues: of Women Leading Kentucky offering mentors to younger women. And Women Leading Kentucky exploring issues for women in the later ages. I also will be a part-time consultant. I’ll be on a retainer to Women Leading Kentucky to help with program development.
TM: What are you looking for in a successor?
JH: They certainly have to bring a strong network: community, business, government, education. In other words, they’ve got to know who’s who in this town and be able to get them engaged. They’ve got to have experience in event planning and program development. They really should have a passion for empowering women.
> A job description and contact information are posted on the Women Leading Kentucky website (http://womenleadingky.com/about-us/job-application/)